Our house was built in 1916. It is detached with a stone wall boundary all around the property. It is clear on the title plan with land registry. There were no properties on either side until recently. In 1996 a house was build very near our boundary. We moved to the property several years ago. Our new neighbours are now claiming the stone wall in between the properties is theirs and are particularly aggressive. We also have aerial photos to prove the boundary is unchanged in any way from 1916. There is nothing in either properties deed to mentioning any transfer of ownership of the boundary wall.

We have been advised that the legal presumption is that the boundary wall belongs to the old property. What do the experts on here feel?

Your wall and your house went up at the same time. Their house came along a lot later. You even have the photos to prove it. Game, set and match to you. Don't even bother to engage in conversation with them. At most - you provide them with copies of the photos showing your wall was there before their house. That is all you do. As stated - ignore them.

Apologies for not giving exact personal details in my posts - you never know who is reading....

Our house was built in 1916. It is detached with a stone wall boundary all around the property. It is clear on the title plan with land registry. There were no properties on either side until recently. In 1996 a house was build very near our boundary. We moved to the property several years ago. Our new neighbours are now claiming the stone wall in between the properties is theirs and are particularly aggressive. We also have aerial photos to prove the boundary is unchanged in any way from 1916. There is nothing in either properties deed to mentioning any transfer of ownership of the boundary wall.

We have been advised that the legal presumption is that the boundary wall belongs to the old property. What do the experts on here feel?

Many thanks for your help.

This is not a situation you can afford to ignore, first you must ask them what evidence they have to support their spurious claim.An old stone wall has a significant footprint compared to an ordinary garden fence. I suspect your neighbour intends to develop but has insufficient land to do so........place there postcode into Google followed by planning application and see what the results are.

I think arborlad is right in not ignoring.
Build your evidence with a photo and send a letter and keep a copy. That way you at least have a record of refuting their claim.
Does this boundary they are claiming give them more land?

sueevans wrote:Sorry I meant no new planning application. They have tried for extensions etc but have been refused.

Have any of their previous applications included land that you own as part of it?............how thick is the wall at ground level, that is the amount of your land that is at risk.

You need to be proactive to ensure the neighbour knows and accepts that the stone wall and the land it occupies is in your ownership - otherwise you'll return from work/holiday to find your wall gone!

Meant to add this as well.............the wall itself will have a value beyond defining your boundary, your garden will be warmer because of it, the stone will have a value and even if in poor condition will be a rich habitat for small mammals and invertebrates.

Thank you all so much for your advice. We did some investigation with land registry and have discovered that their boundary does not include the area he is disputing so we sent him a copy of his title plan and as expected have heard nothing back. They are bullies and obviously didn't expect us to check properly so just tried it on.